The forensic holodeck: an immersive display for forensic crime scene reconstructions

Ebert, Lars ; Nguyen, Tuan ; Breitbeck, Robert ; Braun, Marcel ; Thali, Michael ; Ross, Steffen

In: Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 2014, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 623-626

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    Summary
    Purpose: In forensic investigations, crime scene reconstructions are created based on a variety of three-dimensional image modalities. Although the data gathered are three-dimensional, their presentation on computer screens and paper is two-dimensional, which incurs a loss of information. By applying immersive virtual reality (VR) techniques, we propose a system that allows a crime scene to be viewed as if the investigator were present at the scene. Methods: We used a low-cost VR headset originally developed for computer gaming in our system. The headset offers a large viewing volume and tracks the user's head orientation in real-time, and an optical tracker is used for positional information. In addition, we created a crime scene reconstruction to demonstrate the system. Discussion: In this article, we present a low-cost system that allows immersive, three-dimensional and interactive visualization of forensic incident scene reconstructions.